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Maverick in between two Kerr 46's.... they are pretty dam fast... probably the benchmark for 46 footers no?

2017 lady Mariposa results

2nd IRC1 ~ WarsashSpring Championship- Hamble UK

5th IRC 1 ~ Easter Challenge - Hamble UK

1st IRC 0 ~ RORC De Guingand Bowl- Channel

2nd IRC 0 ~ RORC North Sea Race- North Sea (Harwich - Scheveningen)

1st IRC 1~ North Sea Regatta - Scheveningen, Holland

1st IRC 1 ~RORC IRC Nationals- Cowes UK

Crusaider handicap is almost as bad as Cookson 50.... have to wait for them in the reaching to see the potential.... same for CQS and Maverick who are not foiling upwind, although Maverick showing that they don't get much of a penalty upwind having the winglets or DSS there, otherwise they would be further back.

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hell of a spread on the fleet now from the wind and tidal gates and tactical decisions. Nav on Maverick in particular should be flicked for the horlicks out and around Portland, they threw the race away there. Pretty impressive climb back through the fleet though since then and closing down Mariposa which is good yardstick for upwind variable conditions. Class 40s and Merron/Mabire doing an amazing breakaway and the wind shift to come will favour the later boats out of the channel for a while. As ever, tactically a seriously challenging race and lots more to come to keep them on their toes! Hard to tell if its going to be a big or middle sized boat race, but reckon the little ones will get parked up for too long.

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Lest you all think I am a multihull sailor, I am not although we did operate a 55 Alexis Simonis cat in the Virgin Islands for a few years.

So what are the chances the MOD 70 Concise 10 will finish before some entrants even make it to Lands end? Of course, they may fall into a hole along the way.

Pretty slow race for Concise so far, in the last two Fastnets the MOD 70s have been nearly finished by this point... Not saying it is Concise's fault, just pointing out how quick they can be in the right conditions.

Looks like Miranda and Halvard snuck ahead in the patch of light air to the east of the exclusion zone. They stayed a bit further to the west of that narrow strip of water and it paid dividends.

Lands End... where wind and dreams go to die.

The other move was getting around the Lizard last night. There was a clear leader pack as they battled it out in Falmouth Bay, but then those five or so boats that got around the Lizard first really legged it out from the peloton.

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It will also be interesting to see how Cap des Palmes and Roaring Forth do versus the pack they were with at Lands End. They chose to separate, and stay to the east of the exclusion, and my guess is that it will cost them.

And now we will get to see if the split to the south of the Scillies pays, with Catherine on Erandil making the move. That decision paid real dividends in 2015 for the race-within-the-race that is the Class40 fleet.

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The other move was getting around the Lizard last night. There was a clear leader pack as they battled it out in Falmouth Bay, but then those five or so boats that got around the Lizard first really legged it out from the peloton.

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Should be interesting for Concise in a couple hours... doing 20+ knots Eastbound between exclusion zones with 100+ little boats crammed into the same space, going the opposite direction, at what... 4 AM local time or so? Plenty of tired, bleary-eyed helmsmen, some shorthanded, etc...

If it were me, I'd probably avoid the traffic and go South of the "South of Scilly" TSS... Then just stay South of the fleet until past the last of them. Perhaps the wind is better down there anyway.

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Phil Sharp split from the Class 40 leader pack and it is paying off at the moment. Seems to make sense from what I see... he is tacking his way up in the shortest line to the pressure filling in from the north west.

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Has anyone here raced in that bight east of Torquay ? They seem to be going way too far north into that area and covering much more distance. Are they trying to pick up a SW current along the shore or something ?

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According to their FB page a month or so back, it's not sold and it's the same crew as before. Not signed up with a different name as I can see, but maybe you confuse it with the Elliott 52ss Outsider? (I did, for 3 seconds)

Can't really figure out why Crusader is in class Z, along with VO70s, CQS, etc. Is their rating really that high, or is it a mistake? Doesn't sound fun sailing upwind with that boat in that class...

Yep it really rates that high! It rates only 0.020 behind the Cookson 50, 0.006 behind a whitbread 60 and a fair bit higher than a slightly turboed Farr 52, they're gaining a little speed now but before the car park at the lizard they were struggling to catch the well sailed 32-36ft production racer-cruisers

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Focus is on the fast boats but if I were out there I'd be looking at Wednesday as potentially going to be too heavy for the rest of the fleet piling up around the rock.

Pleasantly surprised Hugo Boss has maintained relative contact with the leaders. It's been a rough couple of days on board, once they round the rock Hugo Boss might average a knot or two adv consistently perhaps more if the winds pick up as expected later in the day. It'll be a nice chase the rabbit.

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Should be interesting for Concise in a couple hours... doing 20+ knots Eastbound between exclusion zones with 100+ little boats crammed into the same space, going the opposite direction, at what... 4 AM local time or so? Plenty of tired, bleary-eyed helmsmen, some shorthanded, etc...

If it were me, I'd probably avoid the traffic and go South of the "South of Scilly" TSS... Then just stay South of the fleet until past the last of them. Perhaps the wind is better down there anyway.

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Erandil is crushing the south-of-Scillies option. 4 hours and 18 minutes ago she was in 14th. Now in 7th, 13 miles out of first place (about 7 miles out of 3rd) and moving faster than the six boats in front of her. Catherine, making the TSS choice pay off.

There has been one significant retirement among the Class40s when Phor-ty, the competitive Mach 40 of Britain’s Peter Harding, was dismasted yesterday afternoon four miles from Portland Bill. “I had a really good feeling – we were moving in the right direction in the fleet and we had a really good crew. I am very gutted,” admitted Phor-ty’s Pip Hare. “We got to Portland Race on the turn of the tide so we had the first of the tide against us, but we were still making eight knots across the ground. It wasn’t as lumpy as it could have been. But then we had a failure of a forestay fitting - it went ‘BANG’ and the mast floated down behind us.”

They were able to save the rig with minimal damage and retired into Portland Harbour.

I would guess they were short tacking up the bank to dodge the tide, it is normally carnage at that point as the fleets are started in reverse speed order and by Shingles the faster boats are starting to come through the slower ones. 300+ boats trying to short tack a narrow channel, I can see how it happens, not smart though. The same might be said about the maxi which managed to run aground and get stuck on them for 4hrs last edition (the ironically named "Lucky").

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What are the wind conditions like once the boats round the rock? Good enough to get an idea of how the VOR & IMOCA compare speed wise? As Rambler is doing nearly 19, I hope the conditions will suit the high speed drag race.

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What are the wind conditions like once the boats round the rock? Good enough to get an idea of how the VOR & IMOCA compare speed wise? As Rambler is doing nearly 19, I hope the conditions will suit the high speed drag race.

Waiting to see what the little Elliott 35SS Crusader can do on that leg home after the Rock. That thing is blistering fast reaching but needs to be with an IRC tcf similar to that of a Cookson 50.

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Looking over the tracker I was surprised to see "Monster Project - VOR 70" as one of the boats currently rounding the rock. I was even more surprised to find out Monster Project is the old Team Russia boat that never finished the VOR. Of all the VOR 70's out there the Team Russia one was the last one I'd guess would still be sailing. Figured it was rotting in a yard somewhere or cut up.

SMA still leading the VO65. HB still at the tail end of the IMOCA, any IMOCA including Artemis racing under IRC.

Seems like that most Imocas are sailing deeper downwind than the VORs, and especially Malizia has been very fast. Will see if HB can sail past Varuna. Won't be easy

9 minutes ago, WetHog said:

Looking over the tracker I was surprised to see "Monster Project - VOR 70" as one of the boats currently rounding the rock. I was even more surprised to find out Monster Project is the old Team Russia boat that never finished the VOR. Of all the VOR 70's out there the Team Russia one was the last one I'd guess would still be sailing. Figured it was rotting in a yard somewhere or cut up.

WetHog

I think it is doing charter sailing. Has done some Atlantic crossings and races in the Caribbean

Looking over the tracker I was surprised to see "Monster Project - VOR 70" as one of the boats currently rounding the rock. I was even more surprised to find out Monster Project is the old Team Russia boat that never finished the VOR. Of all the VOR 70's out there the Team Russia one was the last one I'd guess would still be sailing. Figured it was rotting in a yard somewhere or cut up.

WetHog

IIRC it got restored a couple of years ago and is available for charter but I'm not sure.

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Waste of time, other than for the people who are having a fun time sailing it presumably?

Shhhh. This isn't SA. You're not supposed to make proposals based on real life like that. We're all supposed to be Dubarry & harness wearing bow gods/pit maestros/afterguard tactical geniuses (delete as appropriate) unable to get any sleep because of the incessant phone calls from IMOCA/Volvo/AC teams desperate to throw a boat at us.

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Shhhh. This isn't SA. You're not supposed to make proposals based on real life like that. We're all supposed to be Dubarry & harness wearing bow gods/pit maestros/afterguard tactical geniuses (delete as appropriate) unable to get any sleep because of the incessant phone calls from IMOCA/Volvo/AC teams desperate to throw a boat at us.